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[PRIMER] Oozing

Oozing - A primer
(v1.1 by Raystar. Thanks to Pandaman and the crew on The Source for all the development work on the deck and to Jamis for having started it all)

Revision History

v1.0 (May 2015): Primer created and posted
v1.1 (December 2015): updated current sideboard to take in account the fading of Omnitell.

1. A bit of background

As soon as Necrotic Ooze went out of the printing press somebody was clever enough to identify the interaction of its ability with a Phyrexian Devourer and a Triskelion in the graveyard. The first successful iteration of a deck containing the combo was a UB list including some permission and Personal Tutor/Lim Dul’s Vault; the deck worked but it was extremely reliant on Buried Alive+a reanimation spell and had a limited draw capacity. The appearance in the meta of specialised graveyard hate and stronger tempo strategies eclipsed the Ooze combo approach for a while until WotC decided to give us his Highness of drawing: Griselbrand. Mimicking other broken approaches to the usage of the black demon, the Ooze combo became a more “all in” deck that is capable of insanely fast kills or to grind an opponent until a window opens to combo.
When the deck is on its “fast” strategy it resembles Tin Fins but it doesn’t need to go through an attack phase to close the game, it draws a bunch of cards and assembles the ooze combo through producing 4 or 5 mana (at least 2 of which B). In other situations it just sits there waiting for an Ooze to land and trick the opponent into different combo paths. A more detailed description of the combo arsenal is included in another section of this Primer.

This primer is meant to continue to be a “living” document, we hope that, with the help of the Community, Oozing will thrive and evolve. A lot of the primer is still a “work in progress” and it will stay like that while additional content is added.

Please browse through the full thread if you want to keep up to date with recent changes. I'll be posting the most updated list in the primer, but big reviews of the primer will certainly lag behind

2. Anatomy of a graveyard feeding monster

As many other combo decks, Oozing is built upon four main spell pools: the combo itself, a card drawing and selection engine, a disruption package and resources to produce fast mana.

2.1. Fuelling the Engine

After many iterations of the deck, the most commonly utilized mana producing package has the following structure:

15 Lands
5 Artifact accelerants
4 Ritual effects

A typical implementation of those is:3 Underground Sea2 Bayou2 Swamp1 Island4 Polluted Delta3 Verdant Catacombs1 Chrome Mox4 Lotus Petal4 Dark Ritual
Pre-sideboarding (more on that later) the deck only makes use of B and U mana, the Bayous are there to support sideboarding options and are utilised in G1 as if they were “weaker” Swamps. The number of lands has gone up and down for a while until it has stabilised to the current core of 15. At the moment the G splash is seen as essential to battle many forms of hate (more on that in the description of sideboarding options) and it is considered a foundation of the mana core of the deck.

The mana base is pretty stable and the deck can function on a minimum of 1 land mana but it is built to work steadily between 2-3 land mana.

Acceleration comes in the form of Lotus Petal and Dark Ritual. The deck uses acceleration in both the initial setup strategy (drawing) and the combo finishing. It is important to play the acceleration resources as tight as possible during the setup phase to make sure that the finishing combo can be fuelled immediately. That is where the Chrome Mox comes in: it acts as Lotus Petal number 5 after a significant piece of the deck has been drawn and stabilises the combo deployment.

2.2. Making life less easy for the Opponent

During its evolution, Oozing has employed different disruption packages to support its strategies. The current approach is similar to the one used by ANT/TES/Tin Fins: one mana targeted discard to check the opponent hand and get rid of road blockers. For a long time the disruption package has been something along the lines of:3 Cabal Therapy3 Thoughtseize
The 6 discard effects insured that some form of disruption was present at the start of a game. Cabal Therapy has an additional interaction with Griselbrand by making sure that when the demon gets on the board through Shallow Grave it goes back to the graveyard instead of being exiled at end of turn. This is true also for the other pieces of the combo and it’s not too uncommon to burn a reanimation spell on a combo piece (Triskelion is especially useful) to provide utility and have it return to the graveyard after having performed additional disruption.

As of late, learning from what the Storm combo crew has developed, a slightly different approach has emerged:4 Gitaxian Probe4 Cabal Therapy
A smaller disruption core that also doubles as a card handling engine. The issue with Oozing is that the price for the added flexibility it has is payed by having a larger combo supporting core, this prevents us from being able to run the same amount of cantrips available in the Storm based decks. The Probe/Therapy approach is a compromise between an heavy disruption package and a bigger cards drawing/selection engine.

2.3. Cards, cards, cards!

In order to be able to fuel its fast combo strategy, Oozing tries to force a quickly reanimated Griselbrand on the battlefield. This is (generally and preferably) obtained through the Entomb+Shallow Grave combo and it is not uncommonly performed during the first turn of the game. An hastily reanimated Griselbrand guarantees 21 cards and it is generally game over. Oozing doesn’t provide the same cards drawing cycle that Tin Fins allows through Children of Korlis but it possesses enough combo density to generally close the game on the spot. The way the combo flows, after a Griselbrand reanimation, can follow different paths depending of the drawn cards and the game state, we will discuss some of the options in the combo related section.

As previously discussed Gitaxian Probe doubles as support for the disruption package minimising the impact of the big size of the combo engine. Unfortunately there hasn’t been (as of yet) many successful attempts at adding Preordain without watering down the combo density, ideally 2 more cantrips would glue the deck even more than it is right now…it is one of the possible development lines of the current shell.

2.4. Comboooooooooooo

As you probably know the main combo kill of the deck is performed with Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield and Triskelion+Phyrexian Devourer in the graveyard. The Ooze activates the Devourer ability gaining +1/+1 counters and then uses the ability offered by Triskelion to throw them to the opponent under the form of damage. There are other ways to get a combo kill with the deck but first a look to the combo content of the deck:3 Necrotic Ooze1 Phyrexian Devourer1 Triskelion1 Putrid Imp4 Entomb3 Buried Alive4 Shallow Grave2 Reanimate
The presence of Putrid Imp is due to the need to be able to discard combo pieces left in hand, the Imp can be in the battlefield or in the graveyard with an active Ooze to perform its duties. An additional role of the Imp, albeit diminished by having the current list to only run a single Griselbrand is to act as an additional entomb effect from the hand.

A quick list of possible combo effects include:

Cast Entomb after blockers have been declared against an attacking Ooze to obtain an unexpected kill or get rid of an unwanted enemy blocker.

Cast Buried Alive when a Ooze is on the battlefield for an immediate combo kill

Cast Entomb twice with a Ooze on the battlefield for an immediate combo kill

There are a ton of possible occasional interactions offered by the combo pieces, from drawing with a Ooze through an entombed Griselbrand to using abilities of creatures in the opponent graveyard. Please note that the deck can also discard and reanimate creatures owned by the opponent adding disruption to the game.

Some of the combo kills are more or less suited to be employed during specific matchups, a more detailed explanation of their relevance will be given in the matchup analysis section.

The full combo cycle generally goes along the following lines:

Griselbrand is placed in the graveyard. This normally happens through the use of Entomb or by being discarded from the hand (through self-directed discard or by going to the discard phase)

Griselbrand is reanimated to the battlefield. This can happen through Shallow Grave or Reanimate. In case of a Shallow Grave reanimation, Griselbrand comes into play with haste and is able to attack immediately granting an additional pool of cards to be used during the second phase of the combo. If Reanimate is used, then Griselbrand won’t generally be able to generate immediate card advantage and the rest of the combo will usually happen during the following turn.

With the cards obtained through Griselbrand’s ability, the deck generates the 4 to 6 mana needed to kill the opponent. The cards to look for to close the game are any form of “reaction start” mana (dropping a land for the turn, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox), some ritual effect if required, and the spell pieces needed ( Buried Alive, a reanimation spell, Necrotic Ooze)

Please note the following (not exhaustive) list of relevant effect:

Once the combo starts it is only vulnerable to Extirpate. If there is suspicion that an opponent holds one in hand it is possible to stack a set amount of Devourer activations without passing priority between them (basically self responding to the activations). In the worst case (Extirpate hits Triskelion) the Ooze becomes an enormous monster very difficult to deal with.

Creatures reanimated through Shallow Grave are exiled during the next end turn. A Cabal Therapy in the graveyard can prevent the exile effect allowing the creature to be reanimated again

A Phyrexian Devourer stranded in hand can be cast and activated until it reaches 7 power and hence sacrificed to go to the graveyard and enable the combo

3. A look at similar strategies

3.1. Reanimator

Why play Oozing instead of Reanimator? It’s a good question that the people that developed the deck have asked themselves many times…Here you go with an attempt to answer the question in the most rational way possible, below you’ll find a list of reasons that in no way are meant to diminish the strength of Reanimator but only to give evidence to the relevant differences between the two decks.

Oozing doesn’t obligatory need an attack phase to win a game

Oozing generally wins on the spot once the combo is running

Oozing is able to grind a victory against some of Reanimator worst matchups (BUG Delver as an example)

Depending on the meta, Reanimator’s ability to use a permission suite might be better than the combo oriented disruption package employed by Oozing. For example, in a meta infested by Storm based decks, Reanimator can have some advantage against Oozing. In general Reanimator is a bit weaker against counter-strategies attacking the graveyard and it is forced to use additional combo strategies to close a game (the presence of Show and Tell in many Reanimator lists is an example).

3.2. Tin Fins

Tin Fins and Oozing are extremely similar, the setup phase is basically the same and the fast combo route is generally executed at the same time. The real differences between the two decks are outlined below:

Tin Fins combo is generally always happening during the span of one turn. Oozing instead may need to pass the turn to kill during the opponent's turn (typically during the upkeep) or wait for the following untap phase. In practice this is rarely an issue but there is a chance that the opponent could recover from the setup.

In a nutshell the two decks differ by offering a different route to the kill with Tin Fins being the most “stable” and Oozing the most resilient.

4. Sideboard strategy

The biggest threats to Oozing strategies come in four main forms:

Graveyard disruption effects

Permission/Hand disruption

Taxing effects/Chalice effects

Specific deck strategies

All of the above are represented in the current meta/DtBs and present specific hurdles that the deck aims to resolve with its general strategy and the sideboard. In general, Oozing, is capable to resist a single one of the effects above (except specific effects that are addressed by the sideboard). Multiple different forms of attack can of course become problematic and need to be circumvented by tailoring specific answers to decks posing the threats. During this section of the Primer we’ll try to address the categories above one by one and see if there is any way to accommodate answers to simultaneously occurring problems.

Oozing is surprising resistant to one time effects, especially during the comboing phase: the combo simply responds to the effect by reactivating the step at which the disruption was applied. During the setup phase there are various trick that can be applied to get a Griselbrand into play at instant speed depending on the state of the game. One time effects that require a creature to be tapped are specifically weaker, often giving the deck an additional turn to go off.

Permanent effect are more difficult to deal with and require specific answers. The most complex scenarios is when they present themselves in tandem with others. An example is a post-board game against Miracles when a Rest in Peace can be in play alongside an active Counterbalance. Oozing sideboard strategy needs to contain answers to a scenario of this type that are also useful to address other hate pieces.

After a significant amount of testing, a combination of direct removal and swiping effects have resulted the best approach and Oozing sideboard contains a number of Abrupt Decay and Reverent Silence. Both cards require the presence of G producing sources and are the reason why the land set includes 2 Bayou.

4.2. Permission/Discard

The deck is somewhat resilient to targeted discard (Brainstorm helps a lot there) and can even benefit from non targeted discard (Hymn to Tourach like) in some given situation. Permission, instead, is totally another matter. When coupled with other hate effects, permission, can really slow down the deck to a crawl and neutralise its power. This is a common weakness of combo and Oozing is affected by it. What Oozing brings to the field is the capacity to circumvent the hate aimed against spells by playing a Creature based combo strategy. Decks that pack “soft” or “situational” permission (Daze, Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm) alongside Force of Will may allow an Ooze to land unscathed after the field has been cleared with discard. At that point the density of the entombing effects included in Oozing is usually enough to overload the permission suite of many decks.

An exception to the above is presented by decks implementing a Sensei’s Divining Top+Counterbalance combo. In this cases Oozing makes use of its sideboard (in addition to being able to use casting costs out of the typical curve of a Top/Balance deck) through the adoption of the counter hate described in the previous section.

It is extremely good that these two problems are solved by the same set of spells from the sideboard, this makes for a compact set of solutions for a wide array of threats.

4.3. Prison Effects

As discussed for the graveyard based disruption, we can identify three main families of prison effects:

Taxation effects are not an enormous problem in singles (Oozing doesn’t need to line up a huge amount of spells like Storm based combo decks) but they can completely prevent the deck from functioning when present in multiples and if coupled with efficient denial. In this case the same set of spells aimed at permanent hate comes to the rescue, specifically Abrupt Decay.

Chalice effects are only partially effective against Oozing as the deck can operate above the usual “1” cost being loaded on Chalice of the Void. Chalice effects coupled with taxation can, in any case, prove to be extremely difficult to manage for Oozing and, out of the sideboard, Abrupt Decay is the usual superstar answer to them. In addition to removal, the Reanimate spells from the MD are generally replaced by Exhume from the sideboard.

Against creature based prison effects, in addition to the usual Abrupt Decay, Massacre comes out of the board. Massacre is especially good against the plethora of W based hate bears decks but is weak to the presence of Gaddock Teeg. For this reason Massacre is generally sided in together with some number of Abrupt Decay.

4.4. Specific decks strategies

There is a certain number of decks (typically combo decks) that can challenge the speed of Oozing or can create game states that are difficult for Oozing to resolve. The identified ones are listed below:

Omnitell: the sideboard contains additional discard and (at least) one Iona, Shield of Emeria to cope with the speed plus permission packed by Omnitel. In addition Extraction effects (Surgical Extraction) can be employed to remove the enabler of the Omnitel strategy if discarded (Show and tell). Omnitell is fading from the meta and the SB has been reworked accordingly (December 2015)

ANT/TES: additional discard+extraction coupled by the speed of the deck are generally enough

The matchup requires some patience and revolves around creating an unmanageable game state for the BUG deck. Instant speed reanimation and the combo being resilient to the typical graveyard hate used by BUG makes these matches pretty affordable for Oozing. Please note the “inventive” use of Triskelion during the second game referenced above.

The additional Ooze from the sideboard represent a real problem for the current BUG lists that only have 4 Force of Will and rarely Liliana of the Veil to stop or manage an hardcasted Ooze. This matchup is where the combo between an attacking Ooze and Entomb is generally backbreaking.

6.2. Omnitell

Omnitel can prove an hard nut to crack. The combination of relative speed and protection needs to be addressed by additional specific hate from the sideboard.

A typical match is shown in the videos below obtained from test games on MTGO.

Miracles is definitely the most difficult matchup for Oozing. Counterbalance, a ton of spell based permission, Rest in Peace from the board, removal for Ooze and Vendilion Clique make it an uphill battle. The only real weapon that Oozing possess against Miracles is the chance to a lightning fast start against a permission light hand. As it is expected, the longest the game the lower the chances of a win for Oozing, especially during G1.

G2 and G3 are slightly improved by the sideboard content and a typical swap could be:

Two copies of Exhume for two Reanimate are brought in to reduce the impact of CounterTop against the reanimation package.

You can see an example of Oozing beating Miracles in the following two videos from a test game on MTGO. Please note that the match was recorded using a slightly different list of Oozing than the one posted above.

The Enchantress matchup is generally pretty easy. Enchantress rarely has the speed to match Oozing and is rarely able to shut Oozing down. The greatest risk that the matchup poses is Rest in Peace that can be even present Main Deck if the Enchantress player runs the Helm of Obedience combo. Normally, though, Oozing can run undisturbed and quickly close the match.

An example of how difficult it is for Enchantress to resist Oozing can be found in the two videos below. The videos have been recorded during test games on MTGO with a version of Oozing slightly older than the current one.

Death and Taxes as a deck is pretty susceptible to combo strategies, the result is that this is a pretty good matchup for Oozing. Despite packing a lot of hate, Massacre and Abrupt Decay are generally enough to get D&T under control.

This is a very peculiar matchup. The MUD player will usually try to open with a Chalice of the Void at “1”. While this is definitely a strong play against Oozing, it is still possible to win the game by making use of the higher cost spells of the combo. It is important to remove the two Reanimate in the MD in favour of 2 copies of Exhume to minimize the effect of the Chalice.

Another reasonable matchup for Oozing. The games usually revolve around the quantity of permission available to the Infect player, if Force of WIll has been addressed Oozing is normally capable to close the game.

The match against Jund is generally pretty easy in G1 but it can become extremely complex in G2/G3 given the horrible amount of graveyard hate that Jund may bring from the sideboard.
Considering the strong discard package and a quick clock, the matchup can prove pretty hard.

The videos below are an evidence of the challenge that the matchup entails.

This is not the best matchup for Oozing but the fact that they don't use Rest in Peace makes it better. Esper Thopter is also a pretty slow deck in general and Oozing is able to create a significant amount of pressure to it.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

For the matchups that you've provided information for, you're sideboarding the Chrome Mox out every time. Are you sure you even want it in the deck at all? Chrome Mox is a bad draw before you combo; though you cite Chrome Mox's use as Lotus Petal #5 to help you finish the combo, it looks like you're not even playing with the card in your deck in a majority of your games. I get that it's an easy cut, but do you really feel that what Chrome Mox does is important enough to want it in all of your preboard games (and only your preboard games since you seem to immediately side it out all the time)? I feel like a fifth discard spell in the main might be more useful.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

I finally found an FBB Triskelion, so I suppose I'll have to try it out for myself. I just feel like the card adds to the number of cards I usually wouldn't want to draw pre-combo, and Raystar siding it out against seemingly every matchup including the combo deck he faced makes me feel like it isn't as important to devote a spot to being able to complete the combo. I think I'll probably play a Thoughtseize in the spot, and make a note of every time it would have been better as a Chrome Mox.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

I side differently to Raystar, we are always having discussions about that.

As I said numerous times...I'm a very bad player :) (not a joke, I really am...)

I generally keep the Mox in against Storm and Dredge and I side it out when I may benefit from an hard casted Ooze to go in the red zone.

The Mox is great to make sure that you are going to close the deal when passing through Griselbrand and this is your typical way to combo in G1. During G2 and G3 the opponent will know where you are coming from, and you will probably go through the motions of the kill part of the combo (either by attacking with the Ooze or by burying the combo pieces with a Ooze on the table). In this case the Mox becomes less relevant and it's a good side out target.

Assuming you win G1, another strategy could be to side for a grind game in G2 and if that is lost side back for fast combo in G3 (hence the Mox would go back in).

So I play the guy I lent the cards to first round. G1 I Exhume a Griselbrand after running into some , and we all know Fish can't deal with that. G2, facing T1 Cage, he allows me to fill my GY with combo pieces to use with the two Oozes in my hand that are immune to his Pierces and Flusterstorms. I ram one into a Daze after stripping a FoW with Therapy so I have enough mana to resolve the second one.

R2 v BUG Control. Won 2-1.

G1 T1 kill. G2 T1 kill prevented by Nihil Spellbomb, followed by a Sphere of Resistance, and I can't find the double reanimation to play through in time. G3 T1 kill.

R3 v Burn. Loss 0-2.

G1 he kills me T4 when I have him dead next turn. G2 he kills me turn 3 when I have him dead next turn. Note: Therapy always names Eidolon!

R4 v Infect. Win 2-0.

G1 hand is land, Petal, Ritual, Ritual, Griselbrand, Reanimate on a mull to 6. Keep for the laughs. On the draw, draw a land. Second turn, draw a third Ritual. Petal, Ritual x 3 into Griselbrand with Petal open. Meets a FoW. Griselbrand returns from the GY next turn via Reanimate though, so problem. G2 T1 Ritual Entomb and Exhume Ooze with another Entomb in hand. T2 swing and Entomb Devourer for lethal. Oracle text needed!

The deck is still just as much fun without Blue, but much better with it. Don't be afraid to run Oozing if you don't have USeas and Deltas, just go BG and have a wild time!

Sign in Blood is garbage, though. You need something else there, but I don't know what. Probes or more reanimation, perhaps?

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

Also, I'm Oozing some style and class at this Sunday's Big Legacy in Brisbane. Going to make it three from three Top 8s with the Ooze, and and four consecutive Top 8s overall! But I plan to win this one this time. GY hate is LOW and I am confident I can go deep.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

Originally Posted by pandaman

Also, I'm Oozing some style and class at this Sunday's Big Legacy in Brisbane. Going to make it three from three Top 8s with the Ooze, and and four consecutive Top 8s overall! But I plan to win this one this time. GY hate is LOW and I am confident I can go deep.

Good stuff mate!

I'm playing with cardboard tonight with a slightly different sideboard (-1 Ooze, + 1 Iona...I expect some Omnitell ). I hope to do well...I'll make a report tomorrow.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

Nice. Although I like Probe I am good enough with Therapy not to need it all the time. I'll likely be running close to my usual 61 card list. But I am giving careful consideration to the amount of Storm and Omni there will be with Iona in side...

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

A couple of minor technical things about the deck which I think were not mentioned in the OP:

Q1) Why run 1of Putrid Imp? Isn't that a dead card?

A1) Supposing you have a Triskelion in hand, you can Buried Alive (Necrotic Ooze, Phyrexian Devourer & Putrid Imp) into Reanimate/Shallow Grave the Ooze, activate Putrid Imp's ability to go off without having to e.g. Cabal Therapy yourself naming Triskelion.

Q2) What about Necrotic Ooze gaining 7+ attack with Phyrexian Devourer's ability and consequently sacrifing itself? Isn't that a problem?

A2) While the ability putting too many +1/+1 counters on Ooze is on the stack, you respond to it without giving priority to your opponent with another Devourer activation. Repeat until the opponent dies. The game will end before the Ooze becomes "too large", needing to be sacrificed.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

Putrid Imp allows you to combo with Buried Alive + Reanimation if you have either Phyrexian Devourer or Triskelion in hand. Buried Alive for Necrotic Ooze, PImp, and whichever of the other combo piece is not in hand, and resolve your reanimation spell on Ooze. Activate PImp's (Ooze's) ability by discarding the combo piece you have in hand and then combo as normal. This works even if you have both Trisk and Devourer in hand, too. Buried Alive for Ooze and Pimp, reanimate Ooze, and use PImp's (Ooze') ability twice holding priority and, gain, combo as usual. PImp is also useful to play out on the board because any Griselbrand or Ooze (or even Trisk or Devourer) can be discarded at instant speed and reanimated. Especially useful if you're comboing with Shallow Grave and they take your Ooze with a Deathrite Shaman, for example. Let that ability resolve, and with Shallow Grave on the stack, discard the Ooze from your hand and get it anyway. Also, PImp sacs to Therapy to push through that all important spell. It blocks in a pinch. It combines with Ooze, Trisk, and Devourer to go on beat down (especially with Threshold). In conclusion, it's far from dead: it's very important.

Phyrexian Devourer has been errataed. The "sac if power above 7" is now a static ability of the card and not part of the activated ability. So can make Ooze as big as you like (or, more accurately) the cards in your library allow) with Devourer's ability. If you for some reason reanimate Devourer (and I've done it many times for various reasons) you do have to be careful, though.

Re: [PRIMER] Oozing

I’m Oozing some Style and Class this Sunday. I’m going to pimp up to match, shiny shoes, blazer, pocket square, the works. But that’s not what you want to hear about, you want a list! Here’s the weapon:

You don’t need to go fast in this match (-1 Necrotic Ooze -1 Chrome Mox -1 Buried Alive). You need to reduce the influence of CounterTop lock (-2 Reaminate -1 Probe -1 Ponder +2 Exhume). You need to deal with Rest in Peace and Counterbalance (+3 Decay +2 Reverent Silence). Normally I DO NOT side out cantrips (i.e. Ponder in this case) but because you’ll go long in this matchup you can afford to do it,

You don’t need to go fast here, you’re plenty fast enough (-1 Chrome Mox). You don’t need the information off Probe (-3 Probe). You’re naming Thalia every time on T1 if you have Therapy (you don’t care about Revoker, you can find Decay to deal with it or Massacre it, but Thalia decreases the effectiveness of your cantrips). You’re quite worried about Spirit of the Labyrinth and Rest in Peace (+1 Reverent Silence, perhaps +2 if you discover they’re heavily on RiP and SotL in G2). Finally, you don’t want that Thalia/Revoker/Spirit you Decayed coming back when you combo (-1 Exhume)!

Your plan is to hardcast Ooze (+1 Ooze), so you don’t go fast (-1 Chrome Mox) and you try to stay away from the full-blown combo (-1 Buried Alive). You don’t really need information about their hand because you know they’re relying primarily on Deathrite Shaman/Cage/Spellbomb as their hate (-2 Gitaxian Probe).

BUG Control

As per BUG Delver. HOWEVER, if they’re playing Shardless BUG, they may sideboard into a Savannah and 4 Meddling Mage. If you realise they’re doing that, it can pay to bring in a Massacre or two! See the most recent Shardless lists for this (I believe a certain Jean-Mary Accart pioneered this most evil transformation).

Your primary plan is to get Iona into play (+1 Iona -2 Ooze) naming Blue, because usually OmniTell is MonoU and even if they have Burning Wish they don’t usually have anything that can kill Iona in the board. You don’t need too much information (you know you’re naming SnT with T1 Therapy on the play and on the draw, and if they Brainstorm T1 on the draw in response to your therapy you’re naming Emrakul) (-2 Probe). You need disruption (+1 Thoughtseize +2 Surgical Extraction). You’re likely going to be trading discard/counterspells so it’s not going to be a fast matchup, and even if you do get a Griselbrand you have the option for Iona and not full combo so having that fast mana is less of an issue (Iona takes 2-3 mana, full combo takes 4-5 mana) (-1 Chrome Mox).

Sneak ‘n Show

As per OmniTell. Iona on Blue is usually the correct choice. USUALLY. Sometimes, if you know their hand, RED is correct because they could have no cantrips and be wanting to hardcast Sneak Attack/Through the Breach.

Iona again plays a major role in this matchup. Name GREEN. Then then cannot: (1) pump their creatures; or (2) Crop Rotate for Karakas (or Bojuka Bog, for that matter). If you manage to get Iona on Green, DO NOT put out a Bayou under any circumstances (they run Submerges and will get your Iona). Force them to get to five mana to hardcast that shit.

On the play, you know what you’re naming T1 with Therapy (CHALICE). If you can therapy T2, name LODESTONE GOLEM (4 Golem v 3 Trinisphere makes it a better call). You don’t care about much else at this point. Try and go off ASAP.

On the draw, you probably already got Chaliced T1. If you didn’t, and they had the mana to play it, name LODESTONE GOLEM (again, 4 Golem v 3 Trinisphere makes it a better call). Again, try and go off ASAP.

Deathblade

It’s difficult. They already have Deathrite Shaman, but because they’re in White for StP, you could see a combination of Rest in Peace, Containment Priest, Meddling Mage, or Grafdigger’s Cage. In order of likelihood, it’s probably going to be Mage and Priest tied for first, then RiP and Cage tied for second. Out of your hate, Abrupt Decay is most effective against all of these things, so they should all come in. If they are coming at you with creatures, bring in 2 Massacre. Try to get them to jam a Mage, bait out a Priest with something you can afford to have exiled, then Massacre their board. If they are coming at you with RiP, bring in Reverent Silence and do the usual thing against it. If they come at you with Cage, go the Ooze swing into Entombed Devourer route if you think they’ve boarded out StP. If they are coming at you with a combination of all these things, work with Decay as first preference.

I can’t give a hard and fast strategy for sideboarding in this matchup, it will depend on what you see and feel about the player. If you get the chance to scout, and you see a Deathblade player, pay particular attention to what they’re sideboarding if you can.

You will trade discard and get your stuff countered so you aren’t going fast (-1 Chrome Mox). They have StP so you are less likely to swing with Ooze into an Entombed Devourer win (-1 Necrotic Ooze). You’ll be seeing Grafdigger’s Cage, Rest in Peace, and Meddling Mage from the board (+3 Decay +2 Massacre). If they don’t have Mage, however, you won’t need Massacre, but you’ll always need Decay.

Burn

-3 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Iona +2 Exhume

You don’t need Probe. You don’t want to lose any more life than necessary and you are ALWAYS naming Eidolon blind. You need the Iona on Red, of course (+1 Iona), and more ways to get her into play quickly (+2 Exhume).

You don’t need to lose any unnecessary life (-4 Probe) and you know what you’re naming with Therapy on the play (LED). On the draw, you’re probably going to want to name Breakthrough. You need speed (leave Chrome Mox in) but you probably won’t be able to execute the Ooze/Entombed Devourer kill (-1 Ooze). If you can Surgical, take the thing that will slow them down the most in the situation.

This is a race. You should usually win it.

Manaless Dredge

Board as above. Always put them on the play in G2. Name FoW with Therapy, because that is all the deck seems to be playing these days to interact with us.
This is a race. You should usually win it.

You want to avoid allowing them one less Storm to kill you (-2 Probe). You will trade discard and discard (+1 Thoughtseize) so you will be slow (-1 Chrome Mox). You want Iona (+1 Iona) but the colour you name is going to be highly situational. If you name Black, they can cantrip for their Chain of Vapor. If you name Blue, the can kill you without having to cast a Blue spell. You want to hit their Tendrils of Agony with Surgical Extraction (+2 Surgical) if you can catch it, but otherwise name LED or Dark Ritual with Therapy.

This is a race. I believe you are slightly more favoured, because if they discard the wrong thing they might actually help you. They play NO graveyard hate usually. But watch out for a surprise FLUSTERSTORM!

You won’t want Ooze on the field because of Bolt (-1 Ooze). You probably won’t be able to go fast and even if you do it will usually be with Griselbrand so you have lots of lifegain available and won’t need to try and win that turn (-1 Chrome Mox). You need Abrupt Decay for their Cage, Delver, and Goyf. Iona is surprisingly useful. If you can resolve it, name GREEN. This cuts them off Goyf and Goose, leaving them with only Delver, which you can block with Iona. Just be careful of DISMEMBER on your Iona after the Delver damage has been dealt. Also, there is usually a surprise Surgical Extraction in the board. However, with Iona, you can have multiple different ways to win, so you will probably be able to survive that.

It’s a nightmare matchup for most combo decks, including us, of course.

UR Delver

As per RUG Delver. Not as bad because they don’t play Green. Name RED with Iona, which leaves them with no outs, because they usually don’t run bounce.

This can be added to, revised, and eventually incorporated into the primer. One difference is that I almost never side out card selection (Brainstorm and Ponder) because they help you immensely in finding your hate cards, or what you need to play around the opponent’s hate cards.